Chicken Soup to Kick Cold Season's Butt!

So, school started, and immediately following everyone gets sick. Blech! Tis the season, jumbles of kids and adults sitting in close proximity to each other for hours at a time.  How do you avoid the dreaded cold? Well, you need to make sure that you are healthy so that your immune system can focus on what it does best - killing bad invaders! And you can make sure your body has plenty of nutrients to help keep your defenses strong.

This chicken soup is made from a bone broth, so it's got tons of good nutrients and fat to help nourish your gut and keep things in tip-top shape.  Add in some of your favorite chicken soup veggies, a bit of meat, then right before serving, swirl in a bit of juice from your fermented veggies.  Probiotics, to keep up the good flora!

So, from the very beginning we take a nice chicken and roast it! I like to slather on some dijon mustard and sprinkle with paprika.  This makes a crispy, yummy skin.  Cook for about 20 minutes per pound, and typically at least 2.5 hours no matter what the weight.  When the chicken is done, enjoy it! Eat it as is and/or make some chicken salad.   Save a little to add to your chicken soup when your done though.

 

Take the remaining bones, joints, and whatever tissue didn't come off and the organs and throw them in a pot.  Cover with water and bring to a low boil. Add some apple cider vinegar, sea salt, peppercorns, and any other flavors that you would like (i.e. onion, carrot, bay leaf, thyme, etc).  Let simmer for as long as you can.

When it's done cooking, strain the bones and other left overs and keep the broth.

Next cut up some of your favorite chicken soup veggies.  I like carrots, celery and onion.  Add in a sprig of fresh thyme. And if you have a cold, adding a bunch of garlic will help fight it off.  Saute in butter or oil until they are tender, then add broth and chicken breast, and you get a fabulous, warm, healing, nourishing, healthy soup that will get you through any cold and help ward off any more.  This is also good when you just want a hug.  There is just something about chicken soup.....

Ah! Just look at the beautiful, silky broth! Yum! This is another one of those foods where I can just FEEL my body absorbing all of the nutrients.  It's wonderful. 

Hello Fall!

Since this is supposed to be something of a food blog, I figured that I would add in a recipe.  It's been quite a while, sorry!!

It's the unofficial start to the fall, and that makes me super happy.  I absolutely love this time of the year; the crisp air, the beautiful fall foliage, and best of all, my kitchen isn't a gazillion degrees, so I am able to cook up a storm! I am almost jumping for joy to start making some slow cooking bone broths, braising some meats, and just laying back and eating some damn good food!

To start off, this is a soup/meat and gravy dish that I made in the slow cooker.  I love the slow cooker too.  Fall and Winter dishes are some that just kind of "come together" with what we have.  Volumes are not going to be accurate, and they will change depending on how much I have of each thing.  Most of these slow cooker meals you can add less liquid to make a sort of gravy to pour over rice, potatoes, or squash (or anything else really!) and more liquid to make a soup.  The type of meat used in these dishes is also going to be pretty easy to substitute too.  Use these recipes as a jumping off point!

My routine for the coming seasons is to roast a chicken every week.  From that chicken, I will use the meat in various dishes and I will use the bones to make a broth to use in meals for the week.  I will use the organ meat as well.  The liver I will use in dishes and the other organs go into the broth.  I keep whatever fat comes off the bird for my broth too, and I also use a splash of vinegar to help get the nutrients from the bones into the broth.  The result is a tasty base full of essential nutrients along with the fat to help our bodies assimilate all of those nutrients.  It's fabulous.  I also make a gravy when I roast the bird.

On the weekends, whenever possible, we will braise a big hunk of meat (recipe to come!).  Braising, besides helping create a memorable meal, also provides you with a lot of extra gravy.  Make sure that you keep it!

For this dish you will need:

Meat (I used 3 med sized pork chops, but you could use anything, really)
2 cups of chicken stock
1.5 cups of gravy
3 carrots
3 ribs of celery
1 16 oz can of diced tomatoes and the juice
a bunch of spinach
(I also had an eggplant handy, so added that - it added a nice touch of sweetness!)
Herbs from the garden if you have them, otherwise dried herbs will work.  I used a bit of thyme, oregano, and rosemary.
Salt and pepper

This recipe makes a rather thick version that we poured over baked potatoes, the next day I added a little more broth and a little more gravy to make it more of a soup.  That is what is in the picture.

So, cut up the veggies (onion would work in here too, and so would garlic...but it's not going to make or break the dish....unless you are a garlic fiend!) and throw them into the slow cooker.  Add the meat, tomatoes, and spinach.  Then just cover with broth and the herbs...I cut a large sprig of each herb.  You could add about a tablespoon of oregano...thyme and rosemary can be very overpowering, so I would add half a tablespoon of those, and adjust if necessary. Adding the bit of gravy is a nice way to give this a rich flavor with a lot of depth.  So. Worth. It.
Cook on high for 4-5 hours or low for 7-8.  Pull meat apart with a fork to break it up a bit.

Just be prepared to want to make this every week!! Or more.....

Really, though, adding the gravy just makes this dish over-the-top delicious!